


Consumed

by Duck_Life



Category: Generation X (Comic), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Angst, Declarations Of Love, F/F, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Monsters, Possession, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 07:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12743862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Amid attacks from Emplate, Jubilee tries to save her old friend.





	Consumed

The sound of her boots on the damp concrete echoes in the sewer, and with every step Jubilee tries to convince herself to turn back, to run while she still can. She can go back up to the surface, to Jono and Dani and Paige, to Shogo. She’s an X-Man, and a vampire, and a teacher, but she’s not too full of herself to run away. 

It’s not blind courage or stupid bravery or just plain pride that keeps her trekking through the dirty sewers. It’s something else. 

In the dark, her hand reaches up to find the heavy talisman around her neck, the instrument that keeps her safe from sunlight. She’s got no need for it this far underground, but the weight of it makes her feel safe. 

She walks and she thinks about the day she met Jono. 

Because it was the day they all met Emplate. It was the day that it hit her, standing there in the Logan International Airport and running from certain doom, that she hadn’t been shunted to a do-nothing team. That she was in just as much danger as ever, and that she needed to protect her teammates if she could. 

And in the end, Monet’s still her teammate. 

“M-Plate?” she calls, her voice reverberating in the tunnels, sweeping her flashlight back and forth. With her eyes, she doesn’t really need it, but it’s like the talisman— the weight feels good in her hand. “Yoo-hoo. Come out, come out, wherever you are.” She keeps walking, finding nothing but empty dirty tunnels, meeting no one but the occasional rat. “I’ve seen ‘IT.’ I don’t really wanna spend any more time down here than I need to.”

And then she hears it, a scuffing, scraping sound down around the next bend in the tunnel. 

“Hello?” Jubilee says, cursing herself for acting like every horror movie victim. She tries again, tries to sound a little more in-control. “M, I know you’re down here. I’m down here for you.” 

She follows the scuffing, scraping sound, her boots splashing as the gray water gets deeper. “Come on out,” she says quietly, mostly because she feels like the creepy quiet is beginning to itch at the back of her neck. “Come on out, M.” 

There are so many different Monets, all tangled together in her mind, just as tangled as the St. Croix siblings have always been. There’s the girl she met that first day as a part of Emma and Banshee’s team, the autistic girl who didn’t want to room with her. That girl turned out to be a fusion of Monet’s twin sisters— not Monet. There was Penance (or Hollow?) who couldn’t talk and couldn’t be touched, and that was Monet, but also not Monet. 

Monet, the real Monet, was spoiled and mean and selfless and brave and beautiful and powerful. 

Monet, the real Monet, was down here somewhere. And Jubilee wasn’t going back up until she at least  _ tried _ to get her back. 

The scraping sound gets louder and louder, until Jubilee’s sure she must be right on top of M-Plate. She sweeps the flashlight and finds… a bundle of cans tied together, balanced carefully so that the moving water caused them to scrape against the wall. 

She barely has time to react before she hears the splash behind her, and then there’s a hand pinning her to the wall by her neck, pointed sharp teeth digging into her skin. 

“Hey there, Little Jubie.”

Jubilee tries not to betray the panic that shoots through her. She let her guard down, let M-Plate get the jump on her, and she’s furious with herself. “I’m just here to talk,” she says. “You can put the teeth away.”

“Put yours away,” M-Plate counters. But Jubilee’s lip remains curled up in a sneer, revealing her fangs, and M-Plate doesn’t back off. “What are you doing down here?”

“I told you, I’m here to talk.” M-Plate’s eyes glow menacing in the dim light. “Not to  _ you _ , Marius,” Jubilee says, injecting as much venom as she can into Monet’s brother’s name. “I’m here for Monet.”

“I’m all ears,” M-Plate smirks. “Actually, I’m all mouths.” Again, Jubilee feels the teeth nipping into her neck. “So what is it? What do you have to tell me that was so important you came all the way down here, through the nasty, dark sewers?”

“Just…” Jubilee’s scared, more scared than she was ready to admit to herself ten minutes ago. “Just. I miss you. Jono and Paige miss you. You’ve been missing for so long.” She pauses. “Claudette and Nicole miss you.” She can see something flash in Monet’s gauzy predators’ eyes then, and lets herself feel that tinge of triumph. Bringing up the twins was her trump card. M-Plate—  _ Monet _ — says nothing. 

Jubilee keeps going. She’s been in the X-Men long enough to know that when it comes to possession, there are two options: using a psionic blade or talking it out.

And she’s no Betsy Braddock.

“Do you remember when we were kids, in Massachusetts, and we’d sit and watch ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ every single week?” If the entity in front of her  _ does _ remember that, it gives no indication. “And… and I used to say I was like Buffy and you were like Cordelia. And that’s who we were. Although… I guess me bein’ a vampire slayer isn’t exactly in the cards anymore.” 

No response, but Jubilee feels like she’s getting somewhere. Or maybe that’s just blind hope. 

“Oh! Do you remember ‘Becoming,’ when Angel went all evil and Buffy had to kill him even though she loved him  _ so _ much? And we were so sad that… well, it was for me more than you, but Banshee had to buy us so much Rocky Road ice cream after that episode. And… and, jeez, M, I don’t want that. I don’t want to have to kill… Please. Don’t make me go through that.” 

Slowly, M-Plate snickers, releasing the grip on Jubilee’s neck and swirling around her to lean over her shoulder. “I get it now,” M-Plate hisses. “This isn’t about me.” 

“This is only about you.”

“No, no, no,” M-Plate says, smirking with sharp teeth. “This is entirely about  _ you _ , Little Jubie… sad little vampire with a soul who thinks she can be a real girl. You think if you can ‘save’ me, someone someday will be able to save you from yourself. It’s pathetic.”

“Shut up,” Jubilee says, feeling like she’s taken a blow to the chest. Or a stake to the heart.

“Listen,” M-Plate counters. “It doesn’t have to be like that. You’re not seeing the bigger picture… I  _ do _ remember Massachusetts, and you know what I remember? I remember Sean Cassidy would order a pizza for all of us. And you and me, we would share. You’d give me your pepperoni and I’d give you my crusts. I remember that.” 

“What are you… ?” 

“So,” she goes on, voice sickly sweet, “there’s a whole damn buffet up there. We could do this together. I get the marrow… you get the blood.”

Jubilee feels her stomach sour with acid. “ _ No _ ,” she says forcefully, twisting so she can look M-Plate in the face. “We’re not monsters.”

“That’s all we are,” M-Plate snarls. “That’s all we ever were and all we ever will—”

“M,” Jubilee interrupts, holding her head high, her shoulders back, well aware that M-Plate could drain her dry or crush her to dust, “you stopped. Before, remember that? You were attacking Roxy and the kids… and you saw me… and you  _ stopped _ .”

M-Plate rears back, looking like a scorpion recoiling in surprise. “Shut up.”

“You said my name,” Jubilee points out. Her hands scramble in panic to find the talisman around her neck again, but she stops herself. She reaches out and, instead, reaches up for Monet’s face, holds her between her palms like something so precious. “You said my name, M. You remembered me. And stopped.”

“ _ Stop it _ ,” M-Plate says, but she doesn’t lurch away. 

“You’re better than your brother,” Jubilee says, pleading now. “Fight this, okay? Just fight it. I know you can do it; you can do  _ anything _ . Come back. Be my friend.”

“No…” But her voice sounds so much more human now. 

“I love you,” Jubilee says. “I love you, I always—”

“STOP,” Monet yells, and she throws herself away from Jubilee. Bling!’s characteristic shards explode out from her in one last blast, a few of them narrowly missing Jubilee. And then Monet collapses to the ground, her knees splashing down into the silt and muck, her head hanging. 

“Monet?” Jubilee says, scrambling to the ground to check on her. “Monet, hey, I’m here. I’m here. Are you o—”

“Kill me.” In the silence of the sewer, Jubilee realizes that hearing Monet say that, it’s the first time she’s been scared since she came down here. 

“No, no, it’s okay,” Jubilee babbles, kneeling beside her in the dirty water. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“No,” Monet says, voice low. She looks up at Jubilee, and her face is small and scared, which isn’t like her, not at all. It’s still unmistakably  _ Monet _ , though, with no monster hangers-on. “It isn’t… it isn’t like M-Marius was just  _ possessing _ me, Jubes, he… ch-changed me. Made me like him.” She shudders, sending little ripples through the water. “You have to kill me.”

“We’re gonna figure this out,” Jubilee promises, bracing her hands on Monet’s shoulders. 

“N-no…”

“Listen to me.” Jubilee stares at her eyes, and they aren’t the menacing eyes of M-Plate but they’re still a little crazed. And hungry. Jubilee can’t see her own reflection in a mirror… but even so, she knows that look. “We’re gonna figure this out,” she says again. “I’m in this with you, alright?”

How long has Monet been below ground, stalking prey, living chained inside herself? And how scared must she be, knowing she can’t go back, knowing she’s been somehow irrevocably changed? Finally, finally, she breaks down, letting Jubilee hug her close. 

Jubilee hasn’t actually seen her cry since the day Synch died, and it’s weird, but more than anything else it satisfies her that Monet is  _ herself _ , that she’s  _ back _ . 

“It’s okay,” she whispers into her hair, tucking Monet’s face into her shoulder, letting her cry, letting her be human even if she’s not one. “It’s okay, M.” 


End file.
